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Peter was born in the year of Our Lord 1580 to a Catalonian farming family. He studied at Barcelona before entering the Jesuit novitiate. His fellow Jesuit, St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, urged Peter to evangelize in South America, and the young Jesuit lost no time in heeding the other saint’s words. Peter crossed the Atlantic to what is now Colombia, where he would finish his priestly training, and the young man was immediately struck by the horrifying plight of the African slaves in the colonies. The trade flourished despite the repeated efforts of the papacy and other Catholic authorities to suppress it, so Fr. Peter, declaring himself the slave of the slaves, dedicated his life to alleviating the terrible conditions where he could, while never ceasing to preach and teach the faith. Despite his own natural timidity, Fr. Peter boldly met each slave ship as they arrived, and won the good will of the brutalized slaves with his virtue and material aid. He trained interpreters as catechists, and stood firm against enemies in the slave trade and even within the Church hierarchy who opposed his work. After over four decades of service, and the baptism and education of hundreds of thousands of slaves, Fr. Peter died in the year of Our Lord 1654.
AT Nicomedia, the holy martyrs Dorotheus and Gorgonius. The greatest honors had been conferred on them by the emperor Diocletian, but as they detested the cruelty which he exercised against the Christians, they were by his order suspended in his presence, and lacerated with whips; then their skin being torn from their bodies, and vinegar with salt poured over them, they were burned on a gridiron and finally strangled. After some time, the body of blessed Gorgonius was brought to Rome, and deposited on the Latin road. Thence it was transferred to the basilica of St. Peter.
Among the Sabines, thirty miles from Rome, the holy martyrs Hyacinthus, Alexander, and Tiburtius.
At Sebaste, St. Severian, a soldier of the emperor Licinius. For frequently visiting the Forty Martyrs whilst they were in prison, he was suspended in the air with a stone tied to his feet by order of the governor Lysias, and being scourged and torn with whips, yielded up his soul in the midst of torments.
The same day, St. Straton, who ended his martyrdom for Christ by being tied to two trees and torn to pieces.
Also, the holy martyrs Rufinus and Rufinian, brothers.
At Rome, St. Sergius, pope and confessor.
In the territory of Terouanne, St. Omer, bishop.
In Ireland, St. Kieran, abbot.
At Cartagena, in South America, St. Peter Claver, confessor of the Society of Jesus, who labored with, wonderful self-abnegation and great charity among the negro slaves for more than forty years and baptized personally almost thirty thousand of them. He was canonized by order of pope Leo XIII.
℣. And elsewhere many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
℟. Thanks be to God.